…who just checked your health conditions, after being carried with the ambulance to a hospital because you collapsed at the beach.

You´re smiling friendly, nodding your head, because you didn´t understand, that he told you, that you have a serious disease.

Ok, that´s really sarcastic. But when you are in a hospital or you have an appointment with your doctor in a “Centro de Salud”, you won´t understand a word. You would always need a second person who helps you with a translation.

2. You sign contracts you really shouldn´t sign

Let´s say you trust people too much and you signed a rental contract for your first home in Gran Canaria without knowing the exact terms.

Maybe you think “Hey, this is not Africa. Even we´re close to Africa, we still live under European law, so the contract should be fine.”

Imagine, that one day your water heater breaks and you call your landlord to fix it.

Like everybody else, of course you think that the landlord has to pay for repairs. It´s his house, not yours.

In general, it works like this. But sometimes it doesn´t.

You can see your landlord´s big smile right through the phone, when he tells you, that you´ve signed terms that you have to repair everything by yourself.

You even have to pay for a new water heater and the plumber.

You just lost more or less 500€ by not understanding Spanish. 100€ included from the plumber for not speaking his language. You´re just another “Guiri”.

If you don’t speak Spanish, nobody will attend you (Not even if they speak English).

You wasted a few hours waiting inside a sticky office, smelling the sweat of hundreds of other people until your number shows up in the display.

All that just for letting them tell you, that you have to come back another day with a translator. “Next one, please”.

Show respect and that you want to be a fully integrated member of the local community

Learning or better speaking Spanish makes your life much more comfortable in Gran Canaria.

Plus, the Canarios will be absolutely happy, when they see a Guiri like you, trying his best to speak in their language.

You don´t need to be shy.

They really enjoy helping you learning Spanish, even with hands and feet.

The fastest ways to learn Spanish in Gran Canaria

1. Use professional audio courses to learn Spanish

You have magnificent beaches right in front of your nose. Use them.

I recommend you to buy the Audio course “Assimil Language Courses: For English-Speaking People Who Want to Learn Spanish-Spanish With Ease”.

Buy it in a bookstore, with DVD´s included, or order it directly from Amazon. Transfer the Audiotracks to an MP3-Player (Do you still know, what that is?) or your mobile phone and go every day to the beach to learn spanish.

Go to the beach at 5PM or 6PM. That´s the time you will find empty beaches because the “All inclusive-Tourists” must leave to have dinner in their hotels.

You will be almost alone with your book, listening to the audio courses with a first class postcard panorama in front of you.

That´s exactly the way I started to learn Spanish in Gran Canaria.

Can you imagine a better place to study a language? I can´t.

2. Find a Tandem Language Learning Partner Online

Lot´s of Spanish people want to learn German or English. And they love to do tandem language learning. Which means they are searching for native speakers to exchange languages. It´s as easy as that.

However, if you don´t feel comfortable meeting people live in public, you can also find tandem partners, who only want to communicate via email.

Best places online to find language tandem partners:

www.justlanded.com
This platform is very easy to handle. Choose the right category and read the classifieds or just post one and wait for requests to come in to your mailbox.

Memory techniques are not a substitute for other language learning approaches. But they will boost your experience and you can get some worksheets and videos that will show you how to build a Memory Palace here.

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All those 5 Tips above on “How to learn Spanish in Gran Canaria” are proven by me and helped me to learn this nice language.

Today, I almost speak fluently in Spanish – or better in “Canario” – and the locals are always happy and proud, when they recognize that this blonde Guiri does speak their language.

They treat me on an equal footing and respect me like they want to be respected.

So…Start learning!

It´s way easier than it seems and you will achieve a lot of positive advantages and experiences just by speaking Spanish.